The Big PubLove Event – Featuring Lisa Wray and Harlequin!

As book bloggers our contacts with publishers are vital. They send us books and we work with them closely on promotional posts for their newest, exciting releases. It’s such a pleasure when we see that often they are just as excited as we are about the books! They’re like us, just with WAY cooler jobs and INFINITELY greater access to the authors we stalk love

Have you ever wondered who is behind sending all of those emails we get from the big houses? What they really do and why the work with bloggers like you and me? Ever wondered what we can improve and what do they like to see us post and maybe… even what do they not like?!?

Well…we’ve wondered those very things and we want to share the answers we’ve dug up with YOU!

So we’ve reached out to our favorite publishers and asked them the questions we know you’ve all been dying to ask (but were perhaps a little too shy to actually voice)!

Over the next few weeks, we will highlight different publishers, publicists and marketing associates from big publishing houses.

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This week we are extremely excited having Lisa Wray over who works at Harlequin and is the one working very closely with bloggers. Of course, we have an even more personal connections since we are working with Lisa on all Harlequin Blog Tours via Kismet Book Touring. And I can say that working with Lisa is simply amazing!

Please welcome Lisa:

Lisa thank you so much for joining us today!!! We’re so thrilled to get to give our readers a deeper look into the life of a Harlequin professional!

Could you briefly explain what your job entails and how you are involved with Book Bloggers?

I am the public relations coordinator at Harlequin and this involves creating events, getting media coverage, reviews, blog tours, for not only Harlequin TEEN but the other imprints that Harlequin has as well. I work with book bloggers when we have blog tours, through NetGalley, when I’m soliciting reviews and sometimes I get to meet them at various events.

What do you love most about your job?

When I get to contribute creative ideas to a PR campaign and when I get to travel for Book Expo America and the Romance Writers of America conventions.

What do you love most about working with Bloggers?

They have the same enthusiasm as I do for the written word, especially for a lot of the teen titles that I work on.

What do you expect from Bloggers when they post a review or a promotional post during a tour?

An honest opinion, but keeping in mind that the auhor may read the review, so keeping it professional. Book summary, short author bio, links to purchase and link to the authors website is also appreciated!

What do you look at when you decide to work with certain bloggers? Pageviews, Followers, Alexa? Design?

First I look for followers, then I check if there is a cooresponding Facebook page or Twitter, check to see if they post frequently and that the blog is up to date, look for comments on posts or entries into giveaways as this lets me know whether the audience is engaged with the posted content.

Is there anything that you don’t like us to do? For instance, posting too early, posting too late, not adding links, etc.

Writing any type of really negative post about an author or their work or plagerism from another website.

Is there an event or interaction you had in the recent past that went particularly good that you’d like to share?

We recently had a whole Harlequin TEEN week event with Teen Librarian Toolbox. They were very helpful and took on the role of organizing all of the details, so it made it easy to be involved.

I just Love Lisa! And if you see her at BEA or any other conference say Hello!! Plus, she loves bloggers just as much as we love her!!

I love this event! I’ve read all the posts so far and I love how informative they’ve all been. It’s great to see a representative of the publishing house’s personal opinion on certain things. I’ve spoken with Lisa before, she’s always been super nice! 🙂

I ADORE what Harlequin Teen’s been putting out these past couple of years! They’re sweet and well-written and all-around great stories. YAY! Lisa’s job sounds like a blast. I think it’d be so much fun to have a job where you get to “hang out” with bloggers and get paid to not just read awesome books but promote them, too.Mary @ BookSwarm recently posted..Run for cover: CHILDREN OF THE UNDERGROUND by Trevor Shane

Have I told you how much I love this feature Danny? I think I have every week, but it bears repeating because it’s AWESOME. I love that Lisa looks at comments as well as followers, that’s always something I’ve worked really hard at with the blog — going out and meeting new bloggers and leaving comments — so it’s nice to know a publisher appreciates that factor:)

Hi Heather. Personally, I have to say my favorite book of all time is the book that really got me into reading: THE GIVER by Lois Lowry. Otherwise, I LOVE classic lit and was recently obsessed with REBECCA by Daphne Du Maurier.

I haven’t worked with Harlequin outside of NetGalley where I’m on auto approve (which I LOVE!) but I do love the books they put out! I don’t know if I could even tell you a favorite but I REALLY love the Steampunk Chronicle books!Candace recently posted..Review: The Exemeus by Folami and Abeni Morris

Fantastic interview and a pleasure to meet you Lisa. I adore working with the folks at Harlequin and all of the different authors that make their home there. They have really evolved in the last 12 years and the books I have been reviewing have been amazing.kimbacaffeinate recently posted..Review: The Ashford Affair by Lauren Willig

Hi Lisa! I love Harlequin Teen! They’ve got my favorite combinations anything and romance! I think I’ve been reading Harlequin since I was in about 7th grade. I won’t tell you how long that is! You’ve got so many great titles coming out this Spring and Summer, I can’t wait for The Girl With The Iron Touch, Dare You To, Ink wow great things coming in the Fall too! I gotta find some time to read!

My favorite all-time book is THE GIVER by Lois Lowry. For the role of the little boy, I don’t think I could say as I don’t really know any young actors at the moment, but for the elder Giver, I would love to have: Ian McKellen (Gandalf from Lord of the Rings!)

Awesome post. Danny! I really like Lisa and Harlequin Teen, they are super easy to work with. I appreciate hearing this feedback so much, and I also appreciate their position on plagiarism in particular. It’s nice to hear a publisher make a point about these things.

No need to enter me in the giveaway–this series is honestly a pleasure in itself to read. 😀Wendy Darling recently posted..Golden: review

While I haven’t worked with Harlequin Teen much, the time or two I have I always have loved it and I just adore their books since they have some of my favorite authors (namely Julie, Aimee Carter, and Hannah Harrington). Plus they have some outstanding looking titles coming up!Erica recently posted..Guest Post from Jen Calonita: The Rules for Turning Sixteen

One of my favorite Harelquin books is definitely The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa, I can’t wait to get my hands on the sequel.

I’m not a blogger and even when I post reviews on Goodreads, I try to be semi-nice about someone’s work, but there are times when I have to go off like a bottle rocket because the story was just so awful (it seems this is happening more and more with the NA genre as even well-known authors seem to be publishing dreck just to jump on the bandwagon) or they’ve messed the plot and/or characters up so badly, in my opinion. Are you saying you wouldn’t want a blogger to express how much they disliked a book, even if it wasn’t a personal attack on the author, simply because it’s negative and might dissuade people from buying the book?

Good question Kristin. I think there is a fine line between providing some creative criticism and attacking someones work. I never prohibit bloggers / reviewers from voicing their opinions though, as I believe they should have control over the content that they post on their websites. After all, most of the blogs I see are creative works in their own right! Such as the lovely Bewitched Bookworms blog. I could spend hours on here surfing the posts.

This feature is so informative. Thanks so much for answering the questions, Lisa! Why have I not read Pushing the Limits yet? I really need to get on that soon. 🙂 Hope to see you at BEA, Lisa!Steph Sinclair recently posted..Review: Ink by Amanda Sun

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The owner(s) of this blog are not compensated to provide opinion on the books, literature, websites, and/or various other topics that we review. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the blog owners.